Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - Tank transferred to 14g bow front

[Firefish15]

6 hours ago, billygoat said:

How do all those perching fish do together? Have you noticed any signs of aggression or territorial activity between your various gobies?

Actually haven’t noticed any between them. The yellow rose has his burrow, the YCG perches everywhere, the fire fish has his cave, but is mostly in the open water. The clown hasn’t picked a spot to host, so he just swims everywhere. I haven’t been home too much to observe the new neon goby yet though. 
My clown’s tail fin was actually a little chewed up last night. Trying to figure out the culprit. 
 

7 hours ago, billygoat said:

Amazing pictures! Everything is so vibrant and beautiful. 😊

6 hours ago, Reefjunkye said:

Ohh wow, nice shots!!

Thanks guys! 😄 Might have to buy my own lens set. 

[Reefjunkye]

What lens do you guys use? 

[Firefish15]

2 hours ago, Reefjunkye said:

What lens do you guys use? 

This one was the Polyp Lab Coral-View lens. I’m sure there are other products that work well though.

[Firefish15]

Hey all! I’m not dead, and my tank isn’t broken down. It’s been a long time! 😅

 

Things are doing well! Recently started some SPS and LPS, so far so good!

 

 

[Firefish15]

The tank turned two years old a little while back, so that was a good milestone!

 

Recently cleaned up a bunch of extra corals I had on the sand bed, so here’s a new FTS as well. 

 

I got a decent amount of credit for everything I traded in to the LFS, so I got a little frag rack, plus a neat little scroll coral and a red digitata. Getting them light acclimated now. 🙂

 

For fish, I currently just have the red firefish, also two years old now, plus a neon goby. My barnacle blenny jumped out while I was on my honeymoon, so that was a bummer. 
For inverts, I have a lone candy stripe pistol shrimp (barber pole goby disappeared), a red fire shrimp, and a scarlet reef hermit. 
 

Overall, things are looking pretty good right now! 

[Firefish15]

Been a little bit of activity going on, both in terms of fishes and corals.

 I purchased another barber pole goby and a small royal gramma. Unfortunately, the goby jumped out during the first night. 😕 Royal gramma is doing great though, feeding well and getting along with everyone. The fire fish does occasionally rush at him though. 
 

I sold my large Yuma colony to a coral farmer down south of me, that was a nice bit of money. I did keep one polyp of

it though! I also sliced my toadstool leather off of the top because it was getting too large. I rubber banded it to a rock and will sell it when it heals. I also kept a piece of that. 
 

Unfortunately, I’m also dealing with a Cyanobacteria outbreak. It’s mostly confined to the sand bed, but it’s still occasionally on rocks. 
 

I had a spin touch test done at the LFS I used to work at, and this is what I came up with. 

 

The ammonia is a false positive. Overall, I have no available nutrients, so I’ve been boosting feeding.

[TatorTaco]

I've never heard of this "spin touch" machine.  Can you tell me more about it? 

[Firefish15]

@TatorTaco It’s a laboratory-grade photometer. Each test disk comes pre-loaded with reagents for 8 different water parameters. You fill the disk with 3ml of water, and then it does the rest. Really slick machine. My LFS was given it by a wealthy customer who decided it wasn’t what he was looking for.

Here’s a product link. 
http://www.waterlinkspintouch.com/spin-touch-ff.html

[TatorTaco]

Man, I didn't know these kind of things existed.  Google says it's around $900.  If I wasn't middle class, I could definitely understand why someone would purchase this.  8 tests in 2 minutes with just one water sample?  That's awesome. 

[Firefish15]

I know! It’s a super cool machine. The LFS charges $10 a test with it. It makes sense though, it’s super accurate and the test disks cost a bit, so they’ve got to make that up.

[Firefish15]

Been dealing with a bit of a cyano outbreak. Here’s a photo of my tank immediately after a water change, I’ll post another of the sand bed tomorrow. 

Going to buy some live phytoplankton to start dosing, I’ll see if that helps things balance out better. Also planning on getting an IM Spinstream to liven up the flow. 

I’m hesitant to try chemiclean or a tiger conch, I want to get to the root of the issue rather than throwing a band-aid on it. 
 

Other than the cyano and a little bit of hair algae, things seem to be doing quite well. I’m going to be selling my toadstool leather soon, but I’m keeping a frag for when I upgrade.

[DGibster]

That’s a beautiful tank. I have an aqueoun rimless 10 gallon that’s freshwater but I’m thinking of converting it into saltwater. This tank definitely gives me ideas. How’s the HOB filter worked out for you? 

[Firefish15]

3 hours ago, DGibster said:

How’s the HOB filter worked out for you?

Thanks for the compliment!

 

I got the AC70 on sale, and it’s been trucking along quite reliably.  

 

I originally started using it as a HOB fuge with a submersible light and chaeto. Nutrients have been very low though, so I discarded that. It currently is housing a sheet of filter floss, a bag of rubble, and my heater. 

There are a few of downsides, but they’re all fairly minor.

To clean the impeller and magnet shaft, you have to remove and drain the filter box. Little bit of a hassle, but I’ve only

done that every few months. 
Another downside is that there is no surface skimming, so you can get a little bit of an oily film on the surface of the water. I could probably combat that by having my water level lower and having the outflow splash around a bit, but I like the looks of the tank almost full. 
 

As for the positives, it’s powerful, quiet, and has a lot of room inside. By keeping my heater inside the filter, I get to keep it out of my small display. Good amount of flow, I have to run it on the lowest power otherwise it makes a crater in my sand bed.

 

Overall, it’s been a good piece of equipment. Definitely budget and beginner friendly, which is what I was going for with this whole tank.

[dferrari13]

They make a surface skimmer for that filter...I have the same filter so I was thinking about getting it

 

https://oceanboxdesigns.com/product/aquaclear-ac70-surface-skimmer/

[dferrari13]

Also you can use microbacter7 for the cyano

[dferrari13]

You need a lid...that firefish will definitely jump out...most fish will actually

[Firefish15]

1 hour ago, dferrari13 said:

They make a surface skimmer for that filter...I have the same filter so I was thinking about getting it

 

https://oceanboxdesigns.com/product/aquaclear-ac70-surface-skimmer/

Yeah, I’ve looked at that in the past, but I’d rather save up that $50 and change for a tank upgrade. That and I’d have to start running an ATO.

 

I’ll look up microbacter, thanks!

 

I do have a screen top that rests on tank clips, I just had it off for the photo since I had just cleaned the glass. Don’t worry about the fire fish, he’s almost three years in the tank. 😄

[Firefish15]

Hey all! I I’ve been dealing with some cyano lately, so I’m incorporating a three-pronged approach that will hopefully get the cyano and some green hair algae in check. 

 

My nutrients have been bottomed out for a while now, so I’ve been feeding my fish and corals a little more heavily to get readings on PO4 and NO3. Little more LRS Nano for the fish, and trying to do Reef Roids two or three times a week. Also looking into getting a live phytoplankton culture that I can store in the fridge and dose small amounts of.

I’ve been doing this for about a month, and the cyano growth has measurably slowed. Not beaten yet though.  
 

Second, I’m going to be more diligent about small weekly water changes and manual detritus/algae removal. I will also be changing out my filter floss every other day or so. I’ve read good things about Microbacter7, so will also be adding that to the maintenance routine. As far as I’ve read, it’s not a chemical that kills cyano, but a bacteria culture that will outcompete it over time. 
 

The third prong is increasing the flow and oxygenation in the tank. I have a little Homasy 80gph power head sitting around, and I outfitted it with an IM SpinStream. It’s mounted on the other side of the tank from the HOB filter, so hopefully that will eliminate dead spots. The SpinStream isn’t  too loud right out of the box, and I hear it gets quieter in a week or two. So far quite happy with it. 

Here’s a candid FTS. I last did a water change and glass cleaning on Sunday, and here’s now. 

[Firefish15]

Here’s my cat Moose helping me cut filter pads. 

[mfield16]

Whoa that cyano came on strong,  and fast.  Crazy.  That approach should take care of it though. I used a turkey baster to stir up portions of my sand every day which helped me. 

[Firefish15]

10 hours ago, mfield16 said:

I used a turkey baster to stir up portions of my sand every day which helped me.

Yeah, turkey basters are a wonderful tool. Good for precise removal of cyano as well. 
 

Did you deal with it in the past?

[mfield16]

I did but nowhere near as much as you. Increased flow and manual removal was enough.

[Firefish15]

Finally sold off some of the corals that I’d been meaning to for a while. Toadstool leather and sinularia frag are off to new homes for $$ towards the eventual tank upgrade. 
A few other frags went to the LFS and were traded for a bottle of Microbacter7 and a small female emerald crab. 
Got home and did a thorough algae removal and WC. 
Overall busy day, but the tank is looking clean and open for now!

 

The next purchase I’ll make is another Hipargero light and a heater controller. Both of those will be used on the next setup as well.

[Firefish15]

Tested parameters, all looking decent. 
 

Sg 1.025

PO4 ~0

kH 8.5

Ca 480

 

I’m only using an API kit right now, so a better brand of test is definitely on the list as well.

[mfield16]

Looks good trimmed down. Brings out the negative space, and actually makes it look bigger!